Weirdest consular requests revealed

British consular staff have revealed some of the more unusual inquiries they
received last year, including a request for help translating a tattoo, and
an appeal for a background check on a Swedish woman encountered online.

The odd demands were revealed by the Foreign Office as part of its Know Before You Go campaign, aimed at educating British travellers about what they can and cannot seek support for.

It also claimed that a couple asked the consul in Kuala Lumpur for money to pay for their child to attend an international school, while a woman in Beijing is said to have approached Foreign Office staff for support because the football boots she had purchased were of poor quality.

A woman requested that consular staff in Tel Aviv in Israel order her husband to get fit “so they could have children”, while a man in Cambodia was refused help claiming for compensation after being injured by a monkey.

Consular staff also reported a number of requests for Olympic tickets, and help finding bars to watch the football, while one holidaymaker asked the Foreign Office to silence a noisy cockerel.

The background check on the Swedish woman was requested by a man in Stockholm, and help with the tattoo translation was requested in Rome.

During the last 12 months, the Foreign Office handled more than a million consular inquiries and supported a total of 52,135 British nationals in difficulty overseas.

The majority of requests for help are made by Britons in southern Europe. The Foreign Office set up a contact centre in Malaga in February 2011 to handle the high volume of non-consular inquiries. Since its launch staff have handled 131,211 calls, it said, 39 per cent of which have been lifestyle inquiries.

"Our aim is to help staff at posts concentrate on what is important but some of the inquiries we received from British nationals last year were bizarre to say the least,” said Steve Jones of the Foreign Office. "For example, one customer contacted us to ask if we could provide the name of the watch that the Royal Navy sailors wore between the years 1942-1955."

The consular affairs minister Mark Simmonds said: "We are not in a position to help people make travel arrangements or social plans, but we do help those who face real problems abroad. These can include victims of crime, bereaved families who have lost a loved one abroad or Britons who have been arrested or detained.”